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Staff Profile

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John W. McCarter, Jr.

President Emeritus

Board of Trustees

John W. McCarter, Jr. is a Life Trustee and President Emeritus of The Field Museum. He served as President and Chief Executive Officer from 1996 to 2012.

A native Chicagoan, McCarter previously was Senior Vice President of Booz Allen & Hamilton, Inc., where he consulted with several leading companies active in agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and nutrition. Earlier, he served as President of DeKalb Corporation and DeKalb-Pfizer Genetics and as Budget Director of the State of Illinois under Governor Richard B. Ogilvie. He was a White House Fellow during the administration of Lyndon B. Johnson.

McCarter is a Director of W.W. Grainger, Inc.

He is an Emeritus Trustee of the University of Chicago and a former trustee of Princeton, a member of the Board of Governors for Argonne National Laboratory, a Regent at the Smithsonian Institution, a trustee of the National Recreation Foundation, an Emeritus Trustee and former Chairman of Chicago’s Public Television Station Channel 11. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Mr. McCarter received an M.B.A. from Harvard University, attended the London School of Economics, and graduated from Princeton University in 1960.

He and his wife Judy have three adult children and four grandchildren.

Additional Information

Education

McCarter is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Business School, and also attended the London School of Economics.